The nature of Amed (Diyarbakır) has been destroyed by oil exploration in recent years. According to the data of Amed Bar Association City and Environment Law Commission; oil exploration and extraction works have been carried out in more than 200 points in the city in the last 5 years. Due to oil exploration and extraction activities, 35 thousand hectares of agricultural land was lost.

 

Derxust and Cinezûr rural neighbourhoods in Licê are also targeted by oil companies. Road work started on 17 October for oil activities. Many trees were cut down due to the road work for the oil exploration company.

 

Ahmet İnan, Chair of the Amed Bar Association Urban and Environmental Law Commission, and residents of the region reacted to the oil drilling and the destruction caused.

 

'THEIR AIM IS TO DRIVE US OUT OF HERE'

 

Asiye Söğüt (70), a resident of Derxust neighbourhood, stated that they had migrated to Meletî (Malatya) in the 1990s under military force and returned after many years. Asiye Söğüt said that the state wants to make them migrate for the second time with the mining and oil exploration works and emphasised that they do not want oil work in their neighbourhood. Asiye Söğüt said: "When I went outside and looked, there was a digger working above our house. I asked him, 'Son, what are you doing, are you going to demolish the house on our heads?' He said, 'Auntie, there will be oil exploration work, we are building a road for it'. I chased him away from the house, but this time they started working elsewhere. They cut down all the trees and went up the hill. Their aim is not to search for oil, but to drive us out of here." Asiye Söğüt emphasised that they will resist against oil exploration and will not leave their neighbourhood.

 

'THERE IS A STATE-SPONSORED ATTACK'

 

Suat Mercan, a resident of Cinezur neighbourhood, stated that pastures and forest areas were destroyed by construction equipment. Pointing out that their neighbourhood is a historical settlement, Mercan said: "The companies are damaging nature for profit, without considering the balance of nature. The government is also a partner in this. There is a state-sponsored attack on our lands. Roads are being built for oil exploration without consulting the people living here. So many trees are being cut down, where is the Minister of Forestry? The reason for his silence is that this is a Kurdish geography and Kurds live here. Their only aim is to obtain underground resources and exploit Kurdish lands. We are against the mine wherever it is and we don't want it."

 

Ali Gündoğar, who is engaged in animal husbandry in the same neighbourhood, said: "We had to live in Mersin for a while due to the village burnings in the 90s. I came back to the village and decided to live in the village. But now they are doing oil exploration here. This work causes serious damage to people and nature. With oil exploration, they actually want to exile us from here and assimilate us. Today, everyone living in this village is interested in animal husbandry. But if oil is extracted, no one can engage in animal husbandry and live here." 

 

A NEW STRATEGY OF FORCED MIGRATION

 

Stating that mining and oil exploration activities in Kurdistan are not carried out in accordance with the laws, nature and human rights, Ahmet Inan, Chair of the City and Environment Law Commission of the Amed Bar Association, said: "We do not accept mining in this way. There is a special practice in Kurdistan. All of the areas where mining is carried out are villages that were evacuated in the 90s. So all of this is not a coincidence. While there should be incentives for the revival of life there, the opposite process is taking place. For example, a family has 400-500 small cattle. The areas where they graze those animals are being opened for mining or oil fields. As such, people cannot make a living and are forced to migrate."

 

'CENTURIES-OLD TREES ARE BEING CUT DOWN'

 

Stating that the residents of Derxust and Cinezur neighbourhoods requested legal support from them, İnan continued as follows: "The residents of the neighbourhoods reported that forest and pasture areas were being excavated by construction equipment. We met with the citizens and went to the area where the destruction was taking place. The scene we encountered was the cutting down of centuries-old trees and the destruction of forested areas. There was a massacre of trees in a large gap in a forest. We visualised and documented all the destruction of nature. There is no EIA report on these oil exploration activities. A licence may have been obtained, but obtaining a mining licence in a region does not constitute a reason to cut down all the trees there. We will file a criminal complaint about the tree felling and we will follow the case."

 

MA / Heval Önkol